i88i.] 
Analyses of Books . 
45 
showers upon our “persuasion” do not, however, blind us to the 
merits of his book, though we believe that not a few passages 
might be advantageously modified. 
The Laws of Health. By W. H. Corfield, M.D. London: 
Longmans, Green, and Co. 
This little work belongs to the series of “ London Science Class 
Books,” edited by Prof. G. C. Foster and P. Magnus, and con- 
tains much good advice. The author treats successively of 
health and of disease, with its predisposing and determining 
causes, of constitution, and of temperaments. Here it must be 
noted that he regards the nervous temperament as one of a 
marked tendency to disease and the lymphatic as a condition of 
strong predisposition to scrofula. He then enters upon the sub- 
jects of idiosyncrasies and of heredity. He remarks that “ all 
people who live to a great age have good teeth,” and again, 
“ most very old people have been early risers.” This may be 
corredt, but do the converse propositions hold good ? Do most 
people who have good teeth and who practice early rising attain 
a great age ? We believe not ; early rising is in some parts of 
England compulsory for the majority of the population, but the 
duration of life there is far from long. Perhaps, however, we 
may say that if a man of his own free will and pleasure rises 
early, it may be regarded as a proof of the possession of a strong 
constitution, since all persons feel themselves more languid in 
the early morning than at any other time The author justly 
condemns open waistcoats, tight-lacing, and high-heeled boots. 
In comparing the open fire-places of England with stoves, and 
giving the preference, from a sanitary point of view, to the 
former, the author forgets that stoves are not necessarily made 
of iron, and that those whose outer surfaces consist of glazed 
fire-tiles are free from the disadvantages to which he refers. 
In treating of food Dr. Corfield states that “ flesh is more 
nutritious if eaten raw than when cooked, but less digestible.” 
We do not perceive that he adds in this place the needful cau- 
tion as to the introduction of entozoa and disease germs into 
the system through the medium of raw — or what is substantially 
the same thing — under-done meat. He speaks of the necessity 
of thorough cooking in case of diseased meat, but many readers 
may conclude that the precaution is not otherwise necessary. 
We consider that this treatise will prove of very great utility. 
